Emergent curriculum was put into action this week in Ms. Loretta and Ms. Kathy’s toddler classroom! They decided that this week they were going to take a step back and begin to be very intentional with their observations, reflections, and planning. They started the week off knowing that over the past few weeks the children had a continual fascination with dumping and pouring things. This inspired them to bring in one of our large swimming pools and fill it with 100 lbs. of corn and recycled containers to learn more about this particular activity that the children loved doing. There were no expectations as to what the next day would bring. Both teachers took a step back and listened to the children’s words, watched their interactions, and studied what they were doing in the swimming pool. Ms. Loretta took note that one of her youngest girls was meticulous and filled a juice bottle with one corn kernel at time while an older toddler wanted to fill her large bottle up as fast as possible with a smaller cup. As they played they began to add cars and small toy wagons to the corn pit. They loved to lie in the corn and giggled as they covered each other in the corn. They were repetitive and filled and dumped their full containers over and over again.

The observation of the one little girl filling her bottle slowly led them to take a long box, cut holes in the top, and attached a variety of tubes for the children to use with the corn with. They gave them tweezers and spoons. While some of the children were actively using the tweezers and spoons many began to pretend to stir their corn so on Wednesday they added a big mixing pot and two mixing spoons to encourage their play. They were given a few of the water bottles they had filled throughout the week to explore paint with. They rolled and stamped a variety of colors to make an original piece of art. While that was happening Ms. Loretta noticed that one of the little boys was playing one of the large empty containers with a lid on it. He filled the container with corn and it became an instant drum! On Thursday we used the empty containers to fill to make instruments and have a “parade” with music and singing. They also noticed that another little girl loved “sliding” down into the corn so we also added a slide into the corn! The kids enjoyed going up and down throughout the day J Next week they are going to investigate more ways to slide and ways to make music!